If this report is true, Airbus is in big trouble

SUNNYVALE, California USDuring 2017, Boeing smoked its European rival Airbus in terms of orders for wide-body planes.

Boeing received 167 net orders for wide-bodies last year, compared to just 55 for Airbus.

The U.S. aerospace giant's momentum has continued in early 2018.

Boeing booked 21 net firm wide-body orders in January and February, versus eight for Airbus. Boeing has also finalized at least one major wide-body deal this month.

Recent reports suggest that Boeing is set to further extend its dominance in the wide-body market. American Airlines is poised to place an order for 2530 additional 787 Dreamliners, while cancelling its existing order for 22 Airbus A350s.

The A350s were initially scheduled for delivery beginning in 2014. But due to a combination of production delays and two deferrals by American Airlines in the past two years, the first A350s are now supposed to arrive in late 2020.

During the past year, American's management has openly acknowledged that the company is rethinking the A350 order.

The merger is the main reason for this change of heart. US Airways was about a third the size of the current merged airline, so it would have been reasonable to operate 22 aircraft of a particular type.

However, it's not efficient for an airline the size of American to operate such a small subfleet, according to the carrier's president, Robert Isom.

Indeed, American Airlines aims to simplify its fleet from 52 subfleets in 2016 (including different configurations of the same aircraft) to just 30 by the end of 2022.In keeping with this goal, management decided that it needed to increase the size of the A350 order or cancel it outright.

American Airlines is set to dump its A350 order in favor of buying 25-30 additional Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, according to Reuters. -Yahoo Finance